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Cambridge University Press9780521874878 - Justice, Gender, and the Politics of Multiculturalism - by Sarah SongFrontmatter/Prelims

Justice, Gender, and the Politics of Multiculturalism

Justice, Gender, and the Politics of Multiculturalism explores the tensions that arise when culturally diverse democratic states pursue both justice for religious and cultural minorities and justice for women. Sarah Song provides a distinctive argument about the circumstances under which egalitarian justice requires special accommodations for cultural minorities while emphasizing the value of gender equality as an important limit on cultural accommodation. Drawing on detailed case studies of gendered cultural conflicts, including conflicts over the “cultural defense” in criminal law, aboriginal membership rules, and polygamy, Song offers a fresh perspective on multicultural politics by examining the role of intercultural interactions in shaping such conflicts. In particular, she demonstrates the different ways that majority institutions have reinforced gender inequality in minority communities and, in light of this, argues in favor of resolving gendered cultural dilemmas through intercultural democratic dialogue.

SARAH SONG is Assistant Professor of Law and Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley.

Contemporary Political Theory

Series Editors

Ian Shapiro

Editorial Board

Russell Hardin

Stephen Holmes

Jeffrey Isaac

John Keane

Elizabeth Kiss

Susan Okin

Phillipe Van Parijs

Philip Pettit

As the twenty-first century begins, major new political challenges have arisen at the same time as some of the most enduring dilemmas of political association remain unresolved. The collapse of communism and the end of the Cold War reflect a victory for democratic and liberal values, yet in many of the Western countries that nurtured those values there are severe problems of urban decay, class and racial conflict, and failing political legitimacy. Enduring global injustice and inequality seem compounded by environmental problems, disease, the oppression of women, racial, ethnic, and religious minorities, and the relentless growth of the world’s population. In such circumstances, the need for creative thinking about the fundamentals of human political association is manifest. This new series in contemporary political theory is needed to foster such systematic normative reflection.

The series proceeds in the belief that the time is ripe for a reassertion of the importance of problem-driven political theory. It is concerned, that is, with works that are motivated by the impulse to understand, think critically about, and address the problems in the world, rather than issues that are thrown up primarily in academic debate. Books in the series may be interdisciplinary in character, ranging over issues conventionally dealt with in philosophy, law, history, and the human sciences. The range of materials and the methods of proceeding should be dictated by the problem at hand, not the conventional debates or disciplinary divisions of academia.

This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exceptionand to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,no reproduction of any part may take place withoutthe written permission of Cambridge University Press.

First published 2007

Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, Cambridge

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Cambridge University Press has no responsibility forthe persistence or accuracy of URLs for external orthird-party internet websites referred to in this book,and does not guarantee that any content on suchwebsites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.

For my parents

Contents

Acknowledgments

page xi

1

Introduction

1

The problem of internal minorities

2

Reframing the debate

4

Justice and the claims of culture

8

Outline of the book

11

Part I

15

2

The concept of culture in political theory

17

Culture as an “irreducibly social good”

17

Culture as a “primary good”

22

The structure of identity

29

The constructivist challenge

31

3

Justice and multiculturalism: an egalitarian argument for cultural accommodation